Tonight's episode was kind of a dud. Oliver's return was anticlimactic. I thought the small world syndrome with Brick and Merlin was a bit too contrived, even for Arrow. And the ending was rather forced maudlin melodrama.
Arrow - Season 3
- Thread starter Agent Richard07
- Start date
I thought it was all right. I believe Felicity stated the Merlyn situation very well to Oliver. How could Ollie think about working with a man who turned Thea into a killer who murdered Sara, whom Ollie used to love? Brick's defeat on the other hand was anticlimactic.
I had to laugh when Detective Lance called Arsenal "Harper." He knew his identity but doesn't suspect Ollie is the Arrow?
I had to laugh when Detective Lance called Arsenal "Harper." He knew his identity but doesn't suspect Ollie is the Arrow?
At this point it's pretty clear Lance knows, but he's playing it cool.
Ollie is a privileged drunk fuck up who cannot look after himself. There is no way that he could be the Arrow even if they kinda look alike.
The writers attempts to keep Ollie & Felicity apart is getting thin & desperate now. However being trained by Malcolm will be interesting and really bring Ollie into the Green Arrow fighter known in the comics though I still doubt Ra's Al Ghul will die during the show's tenure. Still annoyed by lack of explanation of Ollie recovery though hoping that stuff he been taking is more than simple penicillin.
This ep. kind of reminded me The Dark Knight Rises especially with the big battle in the street. They do seem to giving Ollie and Felicity the Clark/Lana treatment but Felicity came across as being pretty string and true to her values. They also appear to be bending over backwards to keep Merlyn on the show in some way.
Once you realize that the entire cast is completely lacking in social skills and emotional perspective it gets easier to swallow. In the first couple of seasons I always felt Ollie and his family should change their last name to Dramaqueen because of the way they consistently overreacted to issues that would be nothing to a single parent struggling to support 2 kids in public housing.
Lance has known since he found out Sara was still alive that she is all over town and the world engaging in hand-to-hand combat with trained killers and falling off of rooftops. I somehow think that in the back of his mind he has a clue that there is this possibility that Sara could, you know, get hurt, or even die.
Laurel can't bring herself to talk to her dad because she has never been able to bring herself to talk to her dad. She has suffered an ongoing emotional weakness since day one that has prevented from really having an open dialogue with anyone. The rest of the cast is much the same.
Seeing the cast's fundamental emotional flaws and walls they put up between each other makes all the stupid things they do somewhat understandable. Like, "Oh now, Thea can NEVER find out I'm Arrow or else it will be the end of humanity as we know it!!!!" And of course Thea is about to find out, if next week's preview is on the level, and of course everything will settle down. Ollie doesn't tell her, not because there is some "danger," but because he can't get his head wired around actually communicating with the people he should be close to.
ETA: Which brings to mind a few instances over the years where Batman would have some conversation with a psychiatrist, and the shrink asks why he is really wearing the mask. In this show it's pretty clear that the masks aren't to protect their identities, they are to protect their ids (Freudian) and keep them from ever getting truly intimate with anyone. Diggle doesn't wear a mask, and he is the most emotionally healthy character on the show.
ETA (2): I have watch the scene again, is Wildcat dead? That sucks, he was great.
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The answer is there in the dialogue of this very episode.
"Only the student has any hope of defeating the master".
Merlyn is the only student of Ra's that Oliver has access to right now. The only way he has of getting League training at the moment is to learn what Ra's taught Merlyn.
Tatsu said in order to defeat Ra's, Oliver would have to learn to think and fight like Ra's does, and in order to achieve that he would have to sacrifice something he holds dear. Working with Merlyn is clearly forcing him to sacrifice his own principles, as well as his relationship with Felicity.
Nice idea, I honestly hadn't thought of that.
I thought Oliver's return was pretty good, and the big fight with Brick was pretty cool. I do agree that it was kind of small universe syndrome to have it turn out Brick killed Merlyn's wife, but I thought it did give us a chance to get some nice character stuff for him. I especially liked getting flashbacks for him. Was this the first time we actually got flashbacks for a villain that weren't connected to Oliver?
I got a kick out Merlyn running into young Nyssa. Have we gotten any kind of comments, either in show or in real world interviews about whether or not Talia exists in the Arrowverse?
I am glad that it looks like we might be coming to the end of Lance not knowing Sarah is dead. I don't see him being thrilled with Laurel taking over the Canary identity so soon after Sarah's death.
I was disappointed Tatsu didn't go home with Ollie, I was really hoping she would stick around. I am curious what happened to her and Maseo's son, since there was no sign or mention of him in the present day stuff with them.
The scene with Roy and Lance, and the comment about the Arsenal name were both funny.
EDIT: As for whether or not Ray Palmer's A.T.O.M. suit will make him shrink on Arrow, I wouldn't totally rule it out. Before the Flash crossover the producers said that having a super powered Flash showed them that they could do super powers on Arrow, so I wouldn't be surprised also means that they are open to a super powered Atom.
I thought Oliver's return was pretty good, and the big fight with Brick was pretty cool. I do agree that it was kind of small universe syndrome to have it turn out Brick killed Merlyn's wife, but I thought it did give us a chance to get some nice character stuff for him. I especially liked getting flashbacks for him. Was this the first time we actually got flashbacks for a villain that weren't connected to Oliver?
I got a kick out Merlyn running into young Nyssa. Have we gotten any kind of comments, either in show or in real world interviews about whether or not Talia exists in the Arrowverse?
I am glad that it looks like we might be coming to the end of Lance not knowing Sarah is dead. I don't see him being thrilled with Laurel taking over the Canary identity so soon after Sarah's death.
I was disappointed Tatsu didn't go home with Ollie, I was really hoping she would stick around. I am curious what happened to her and Maseo's son, since there was no sign or mention of him in the present day stuff with them.
The scene with Roy and Lance, and the comment about the Arsenal name were both funny.
EDIT: As for whether or not Ray Palmer's A.T.O.M. suit will make him shrink on Arrow, I wouldn't totally rule it out. Before the Flash crossover the producers said that having a super powered Flash showed them that they could do super powers on Arrow, so I wouldn't be surprised also means that they are open to a super powered Atom.
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After the way things went in the last Hong Kong flashback, my guess is that China White happened to their son. Which would also go a long way towards explaining their current lifestyle choices.
I'd love a close-up shot of Palmer, suited up, running to someone's rescue, and the camera pans out to reveal he's actually shrunk down.
Seriously though, they can skirt around the "powers" angle by handwaving it as advanced tech. Which it is.
Is Felicity quitting Team Arrow again over the Merlyn debacle, or is she just quitting the O/F ship? 
Would it have killed Oliver to tell the woman he claims to love that he was lying near death for much of the last 4 weeks in a primitive cabin with no phone nor access to one, all the while hiding from the minions of the man who killed him??? Hiding it from Thea is one thing, she didn't know where he went, Felicity was all too aware.
I really felt for the bottle blonde when she talked about her fantasy that Ollie was still alive.
Loved seeing little Nyssa... and the idea that Merlyn has to fight her before they'll consider his "application" for membership at the LoA "Academy".
I'm glad someone (Thank you Cyn!) has started to open Lance's eye's about Black Canary. Every minute that passes without acknowledging Sara's death to him feels so dishonorable to her memory and his relationship as her father.
I didn't think WildCat died, just that he was really hurt. Did I miss something?
Would it have killed Oliver to tell the woman he claims to love that he was lying near death for much of the last 4 weeks in a primitive cabin with no phone nor access to one, all the while hiding from the minions of the man who killed him??? Hiding it from Thea is one thing, she didn't know where he went, Felicity was all too aware.
I really felt for the bottle blonde when she talked about her fantasy that Ollie was still alive.
Loved seeing little Nyssa... and the idea that Merlyn has to fight her before they'll consider his "application" for membership at the LoA "Academy".
I'm glad someone (Thank you Cyn!) has started to open Lance's eye's about Black Canary. Every minute that passes without acknowledging Sara's death to him feels so dishonorable to her memory and his relationship as her father.
I didn't think WildCat died, just that he was really hurt. Did I miss something?
It wasn't explicitly said, but Laurel told him he was going to be OK and he responded with "at least you're a better fighter than liar." That indicated he at least believed he wasn't going to make it.
Ray and Felicity are guest staring in an episode of The Flash which is filming right now. He first wears the suit on Arrow before this but he takes it with him to Central City. Yes, I think something happens there.
Palmer and Wells should already have a relationship, since they are both science mogul billionaires.
If Ray was just a little older, I'd suspect that he'd snorted blow off the same prostitutes backside with Hank during an after hours party at a tech convention where each of them was trying to roll out the future.
I wonder if Wells is going to pretend that he's never met Felicity, or if Ray gets total access to team Flash without someone mentioning team Arrow to Palmer because they assume that she wouldn't "lie" to her boss/boyfriend?
What a tangled web we weave.
Remember Lila finding out about Barry? #### like that.
If Ray was just a little older, I'd suspect that he'd snorted blow off the same prostitutes backside with Hank during an after hours party at a tech convention where each of them was trying to roll out the future.
I wonder if Wells is going to pretend that he's never met Felicity, or if Ray gets total access to team Flash without someone mentioning team Arrow to Palmer because they assume that she wouldn't "lie" to her boss/boyfriend?
What a tangled web we weave.
Remember Lila finding out about Barry? #### like that.
Only after he's had an encounter with some mystical situation.
Wiki tells me that the root is when Zatanna's dad morphed a curse a baddie applied to Ted.
Wildcat could just be horribly crippled and need to go on a heroes quest to find some sort of mystical solution to his medical problems.
The A.T.O.M. armour was commissioned by Moira or Robert to perhaps match the undertaking, or Walter for some reason of his own, but it didn't work. It could have even been for the police or the military. Clancy Brown's general Wade Eiling?
My point is, is this the first ime that Felicity has worked on A.T.O.M.?
That could definitely be a fantastic answer for how she solved it's issues so quickly, if the reason every one else working on the A.T.O.M. before felt like they were pressing against a brick wall was becuase Felicity railroaded them into it.
She worked in IT Support when Oliver "Found" her?
How could they have undervalued her skills so much, unless she had been demoted by Robert for frakking up the A.T.O.M.?
Wiki tells me that the root is when Zatanna's dad morphed a curse a baddie applied to Ted.
Wildcat could just be horribly crippled and need to go on a heroes quest to find some sort of mystical solution to his medical problems.
The A.T.O.M. armour was commissioned by Moira or Robert to perhaps match the undertaking, or Walter for some reason of his own, but it didn't work. It could have even been for the police or the military. Clancy Brown's general Wade Eiling?
My point is, is this the first ime that Felicity has worked on A.T.O.M.?
That could definitely be a fantastic answer for how she solved it's issues so quickly, if the reason every one else working on the A.T.O.M. before felt like they were pressing against a brick wall was becuase Felicity railroaded them into it.
She worked in IT Support when Oliver "Found" her?
How could they have undervalued her skills so much, unless she had been demoted by Robert for frakking up the A.T.O.M.?
Grumble.
I'm too young for dementia.
VICTORYISMINE!
33 minutes (no ads) into episode s03e09, Ray says that he want's to shrink all of applied sciences into the palm of his hand, then says that Queen Consolidated calls the program O.M.A.C., but that he's renamed it A.T.O.M.
The idea to become a masked avenger might of been his, even the idea to turn the O.M.A.C. technology into an armour might have been his, but he "found" O.M.A.C. when he bought Queen Consolidated, or he bought Queen Consolidated to get his hands on O.M.A.C. legally.
I'm too young for dementia.
VICTORYISMINE!
33 minutes (no ads) into episode s03e09, Ray says that he want's to shrink all of applied sciences into the palm of his hand, then says that Queen Consolidated calls the program O.M.A.C., but that he's renamed it A.T.O.M.
The idea to become a masked avenger might of been his, even the idea to turn the O.M.A.C. technology into an armour might have been his, but he "found" O.M.A.C. when he bought Queen Consolidated, or he bought Queen Consolidated to get his hands on O.M.A.C. legally.
Its been 2-3 years in Arrow time since Ollie came back, and his dad died 5 years prior to the return. That means Robert died 7-8 years ago. "Felicity Smoak, MIT class of 2009" was still in school when Robert was still running Queen Industries.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtBy-GqW3I0
I LOVE the way Nyssa focuses on Felicity as a threat to her relationship with Sara in this scene.
And how clueless Felicity is re: same.
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtBy-GqW3I0[/yt]
I think the fact that Felicity was "buried" in the IT department is just an indictment of corporations in general at their inability to recognize much less utilize their assets.
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